Rosa discusses inclusion, belonging and social justice during DNP lecture
February 9, 2022
As the featured speaker at the Doctor of Nursing Practice Enhancement and Enrichment Programming (DEEP) Day, Billy Rosa prompted students to talk about what the liberation of health care and nursing looks like for them and what they can do to contribute toward that liberation.
Rosa, PhD, MBE, ACHPN, FAANP, FAAN, chief research fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, presented An Overdue Agenda for the Future of Nursing: Inclusion, Belonging, and Social Justice at the virtual lecture in January. His research focuses on cancer pain management disparities for racially minoritized groups and increased inclusion in palliative care communication for LGBTQ identified patients with advanced cancer and their chosen families.
Rosa said nursing is coming to its own reckoning with racism and structural discrimination of many forms. As they create the future of nursing, he said he envisions the future of nursing doesn’t just attend to inclusion, belonging and social justice but embodies it. “I envision a future of nursing that actually represents what it was always meant to be, which is a healing profession that is deeply representative of humanity’s needs and humanity at large,” said Rosa.
He offered five broad pieces of advice to support a future of nursing rooted in inclusion, belonging and social justice. They included acknowledging and countering nurse distress, fostering environments of belonging, aligning with global efforts, integrating the social determinants of health across practice, and keeping track of yourself in the work.
“We as nurses, the most trusted profession for 20 years running, cannot call ourselves the most trusted profession if social justice is not integrated into everything we do. We cannot be trusted if we are not calling this to the forefront of everything we do,” said Rosa.
DEEP Day is held once semester in recognition of the value of relationships and engagement that is fostered when students and faculty spend time together.
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